Potty Training Boys - Albertson,NC

way early to hope for much success

I have two good friends who potty trained their boys around 19 months. You have to remember that 95% of the world trains their boys and girls by 2. This idea that boys are slower than girls is an American idea.

He isn't too young to be trained. Prior to 1960, 80% of all kids were trained or training by 18 months. I had my own daughter in training pants at 18 months, she night trained at 21 months, and I hope to repeat this experience with my son.

You need 12-15 "hits" for them to understand the control. Once he has it, put him on a schedule and just take him to the toilet. It will be months, maybe a year, before he can truly be in charge of taking himself all the time, but think of all the resources you will save by getting him to go in the toilet. This idea that kids can't be trained until they are 3 or 4 and don't get distracted is funny if you ask me. My daughter took herself to the toilet 80% of the time at 20 months. Sure I had to remind her when she was having tons of fun, but this doesn't mean they aren't ready! It just means that developmentally they still need help, kind of like how early walkers need momma's hands to walk. We don't take our hands away from them and say "you aren't ready!" do we? No, we give them what they need.

He sounds very ready to me. You may have to get him out of the crib. Night training usually comes 5 months after day training.

I tried to train my 1st child, a daughter, before she was 2 because I was pregnant and didn't want 2 in diapers. It was a loong drawn out process.

When our 2nd child, a son, was 2-1/2 he was not talking that much, maybe said 10-15 words. SO I didn't think I could train him. However, he decided one day to rip off his diaper & go potty. It took him 2 days of that & he refused to let me put a diaper on him at all even at night. He had 1 night time accident & then he was fully trained. I was in shock, he was so easy to train.

So with children #3,4 and 5 I did the same thing, waited till they were about 2-1/2 and it was so much more successful and far less stressful.

I think your son is a bit young. I see no reason to rush potty training. Don't let anyone pressure you into thinking he needs to be trained now. Everybody has an opinion. Also for the diaper rash, Butt Paste works great.

Best of luck to you both.

He sounds like he may be ready. Encourage him to go pee-pee in the potty, but don't push it if he regresses. One of my friends (mother of 10 children) said that kids either potty-train around 18 m/o, or wait until they're 2&1/2 y/o.

From my personal experience (2 boys)... My older son seemed to be ready to p-t when he was about 18 m/o, but I was almost due w/#2, and everything I read said not to try to p-t near a major life change, like a new sibling due, moving to a new house, etc. So, I didn't do anything, and now will forever wonder if he would have been trained by 2 y/o. He trained fairly quickly when he was about 2.5 y/o -- I had taken his diaper off and hadn't put on another one, and he looks at me and in an anguished voice said, "Pee-pee!!" At first I thought he was upset that he had just peed in the floor, but he was just upset about the thought of peeing in the floor, so I grabbed him up and took him to the potty, where he peed.

My younger son was not worried about going on the floor. :-( He also showed interest around 18 m/o, but quickly lost interest and I didn't push it. However, around 24-26 m/o, he started pulling off his diaper and peeing in the floor. He wasn't quite ready to p-t, but I couldn't just let him pee in the floor, so decided to p-t him instead. It worked, but it was a longer process (a few months, instead of a few weeks). He probably became consistent (i.e., few/no accidents) around the same age as his older brother.

My "method" - I've not read any books on p-t, so I just did what seemed to work for me. My older son would guzzle down whatever juice I gave him, and then pee like clockwork 15 & 30 minutes later, so I set my clock and would take him to the potty every 10-15 minutes. My younger son wouldn't drink much juice, and would go a long time w/o peeing, so it was much harder to remember to take him, and I would take him and try to get him to potty, and he wouldn't need to. Also, when they were in the early stages of p-t, I would let them run around w/o anything on from their waist down, so that they wouldn't have an extra step to do (pulling down their pants and underwear) when they ran to the potty, because I figured they were pretty used to feeling the urge and immediately peeing, and having to stop and fiddle with their clothes might make the difference between them making it, and wetting their clothes. Plus, they were used to peeing in their diapers, so I figured that if they still had that *something* on their bottoms, they would feel "safe" to go pee, and the training pants just wouldn't hold a full bladder. My younger son was especially bad about that.

Just my opinion: give him a little longer. When he starts being dry for a couple hrs at a time, try again. Sounds like you are doing a good job so far, but I don't think he is quite ready.

My son probably could've been pt at 16-18 mos, but everyone always made it sound like a lot of work and at that time I just wasn't ready to put forth MY share. When he was about a year old I noticed that he would always pee right after getting out of the bath, so I bought a potty seat and after every bath I'd sit him on it, then praise him when he went. By 16 mos, I could sit him on the potty at any time of the day and he'd go: he had that much figured out. But like I said, I was the lazy one. (I noticed he was also waking up after naps and in the morning w/ a dry diaper, so I knew he could hold it that long.) Just before he turned 2 I finally decided that I was sick of diapers and let him go naked one day; after 5 mins he peed on the floor then looked at me like, "Did I do THAT?" like it finally clicked that he was the one making his diaper wet all that time. He went around the house naked for 3 days: the first day I had to take him to the potty literally every 5 minutes b/c that's how often he went, the second day it was every half hour, and the third day was every hour. After that I got him some big boy underwear and by day 5 he was telling me when he had to go, instead of the other way around. I got him some pull-ups for nighttime but they were always dry, so I think he only wore them for a couple weeks. One more thing: I always made him clean up his own accidents, including washing his underwear. He HATED that, and I think it was a big motivational tool. Overall, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. So, if you think your son might be getting the idea, I say go for it. Be consistent for a week or two, and if you don't see any progress at all then back off for a few months and try again later.

1) Both my sons were 26 & 28 months old.

2) 3 full days for 1 kid, 6 for the other.

3) Same as above. I waited till they were waking up dry in the morning before attempting potty training.

4) Talking about it ahead of time to get them ready, probably for about a week before hand, told them that they were gonna loose the baby diapers and move to the big boy underwear. We only used our toilet and a step stool, not a baby toilet (yuck, makes me gag just thinking about it). Let them pick out their own character undies. Said goodbye to the diapers and threw them in the trash and went "all undies all the time" from then on out. They got a dum-dum sucker every time they went potty, whether it was #1 or #2 it didn't matter, they still got only 1 sucker. When they had an accident, which they all do, it was no biggie, "let's get you cleaned up" change the wet undies/clothes put on dry ones and back to it. I would ask them if they had to go every 20mins or so and tell them it was time to try when I knew they hadn't gone in a while. That was it. No biggie, very easy!

My girl was a lil' different, she pretty much potty trained herself on our last trip down to CA to visit family, she was also just a few months older than 2, I wasn't prepared and had to go out and buy her panties but she was ready and told me she had to go potty and that she wanted panties! :)